|
Hi All,
Can someone recommend a strategy for managing and development of projects that are Hardware & Software. Its just that AGILE doesn't seem to be applicable for hardware. The big thing is with agile is that it can change right up to delivery which is fine for software but not for hardware which is physical a change will require a re-spin of the board (unless you want to ship a board with tombstone resistors and bodge wires (or ![Green Alien | [Alien]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/alien.gif) preserve us as I have done once a (small)BGA upside down with wires on the balls to pads)).
|
|
|
|
|
A guess would be kanban.
Kanban is what came out of the Japanese just in time production line system - given your example, if something changes regarding hardware then the processes that depend on that new hardware are going to have to wait until that hardware is ready.
Although my preferred development strategy for all projects is MUYBM (Make up your bloody mind!  )
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
|
|
|
|
|
Yes and no, kanban is a method to optimally handle logistics for production (supply, ressources, ...). If kanban is implemented, you do not have to wait.
|
|
|
|
|
|
On not, 'Waterfall' 'it's not the 80's we have gone beyond that, it is so dated' (but it works!!) 
|
|
|
|
|
So check the links at the bottom of the article, there are plenty of methods to use.
Pick the one with the fanciest name. 
|
|
|
|
|
The places where agile "works" are the places where it is implemented as a continuous waterfall-cycle 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
|
|
|
|
|
Well - I know you need to attract and keep the new crop of developers, so kumbaya programming techniques must be adopted. At all costs! At any costs!
Thus, I suggest you adapt the hardware development to the Agile . . .
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
Can you use FPGA or flash EPROM/firmware and turn the hardware problem into a software one?
|
|
|
|
|
Hecky thump!, this beast I'm working on has FPGA's, SODIMM PC104's, it's just that the sort of Agile approach means it's not really getting anything done. 
|
|
|
|
|
Well yes - the point of Agile is to look busy while not getting anything done.
|
|
|
|
|
They've tried to use a software strategy for Hardware/embedded see a problem here... 
|
|
|
|
|
Waterfallish Agile.
Waterfall for the hardware part. Agile for the software part.
|
|
|
|
|
Well I think the problem is Software want the hardware to change to meet there demands. At times we have had ARM9 used in place of a PIC for controlling some LED's... I mean come on that is plain overkill!
|
|
|
|
|
Is that like dancing in between the raindrops?
|
|
|
|
|
Amarnath S wrote: Waterfooallish Agile.
FTFY 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cheers, but its not really resources that are the problem...
|
|
|
|
|
Better not to think of them as one project.
The second project (software) needs to wait until the first project (hardware) is ready for a release.
|
|
|
|
|
glennPattonWork wrote: Its just that AGILE doesn't seem to be applicable for hardware.
Well, if you have unlimited financial resources and time, the AGILE works great for hardware too.
Oh wait, it only works that way for software too. 
Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
|
|
|
|
|
glennPattonWork wrote: which is fine for software
This is plain wrong. It is *possible* for software, but it does not make it *fine*.
Agility does not mean you can handle changes until last minute (There is no time machine sold with the Agile manifesto package). Agility means that your organization is capable of optimally cope with changes - refusing a change that comes too late for a deadline is also a perfectly *good* way to handle a change.
|
|
|
|
|
Oh boy. Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Either the square peg need to be shaped to round or the round hole need to cut into square. I understand your dilemma. The hardware is a square and you want to be catchy round process. Don't fight it mate. Keep them separate. 
|
|
|
|
|
If you find one, please let me know. I work for a hardware company, managed by hardware engineers.
"By God, those flaky software monkeys will learn how to manage their projects just like hardware! There will be processes, appropriate documentation (and we decide what's appropriate), and they will write Engineering Change Orders (ECO's) for every single update. No more of this seat-of-the-pants willy-nilly updating!"
Not an exact quote, but you get the gist  .
Software Zen: delete this;
|
|
|
|
|
The key question in all these techniques is "What is the key constraint, or freedom, that stops / allows work to proceed?". It's all about the [theory of] constraints, e.g. Eli Goldratt, 'The Goal'
In agile it is the realisation that the manufacture cost (running the compiler) is almost zero, so one can concentrate on the other problem - do we know what we want, i.e. continuously ask the customer if the product is what was expected.
For the Circuit board design, the layout of the board is a time constraint, along with knowing if the customer has their external circuitry stabilised (there it's about the interface(s)). So concentrate on getting the time killer (and or cost / quality killer) right.
All in all, the best development strategy is to engage the brain, learn from others, and avoid blindly copying the many misunderstood fanboy techniques. There are no silver bullets (see “The Balle-Argentee Method.”).
|
|
|
|
|
I'm not sure why a conventional agile strategy won't work. You can turn a board in a week using an out-of-house shop. It's not the 1980s any more.
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
